Women’s month a catalyst for action

WE ARE approaching the end of Women’s Month and the focus on women empowerment and issues will slowly fade away until August next year.

Throughout the month there have been a lot of talks about women challenges and promises to address those issues. The end of the month must not mean the end of the women emancipation and empowerment agenda, but it must always be a catalyst for action for women development and to improve their socio-economic status in society.

This year, the celebration took place under difficult conditions as the country has been busy fighting the scourge of the deadly coronavirus, but it also provided a window of opportunity to look at the serious challenges faced by women.

The livelihoods of millions of women have been negatively affected by the pandemic, with job losses and loss of income in the informal sector.

Rural women have to double their efforts to ensure reliable access to water for their families to be able to fight the coronavirus. The Covid-19 pandemic has made it quite clear that it is more critical than ever to implement the good resolutions and empower our beautiful women. The time for action is now to relieve women of the socio-economic hardships in our country.

The theme for Women’s Month this year is “Generation Equality: Realising Women’s Rights for an Equal Future”, but this can never be realised if we keep talking, but no action is taken to achieve our discussion resolutions. Let us invest in women development.

The pandemic has also exposed the vultures who only care about their pockets above service delivery to communities. Corruption destroys the country and leads to more hardships for the women of the country. Let’s all play our role in fighting corruption for a better country, especially our women who bear all the suffering and hardships.

Gender-based violence is another serious challenge faced by the women of this country. This must be stopped to have an equal society where women are free. Freedom is important for women’s confidence and to preserve their dignity.

THEMBA KHOZA | Mbombela